An air conditioner for a vehicle is a car part, which is installed in a vehicle for the purpose of cooling or heating the interior of the vehicle in the summer season or the winter season or removing frost from a windshield in the rainy season or the winter season to thereby secure a driver's front and rear visual fields. Such an air conditioner typically includes a heating device and a cooling device together, so that it can heat, cool or ventilate the interior of the vehicle through the steps of selectively introducing the inside air or the outside air into the air conditioner, heating or cooling the introduced air, and blowing the heated or cooled air into the vehicle.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a conventional air conditioner for a vehicle. The conventional air conditioner for the vehicle includes: an air-conditioning case 10 which has vents 11, 12 and 13 adjusted in the degree of opening by doors 11d, 12d and 13d; a blowing part 14 connected to an inlet of the air-conditioning case 10 to blow outside air; an evaporator E and a heater core H disposed inside the air-conditioning case 10; and a temp door 15 for adjusting the degree of opening of a cooled air passageway and a heated air passageway of the air-conditioning case 10. When a cooling cycle is operated, the temp door 15 opens the cooled air passageway and closes the heated air passageway. Therefore, the air blown by the blowing part 14 exchanges heat with refrigerant flowing inside the evaporator E and is changed into cooled air while passing through the evaporator E, and then, is discharged to the interior of the vehicle through the opened vents 11, 12 and 13 so as to cool the interior of the vehicle. Moreover, when a heating cycle is operated, the temp door 15 closes the cooled air passageway and opens the heated air passageway, the blown air exchanges heat with cooling water flowing inside the heater core H while passing the heater core H through the heated air passageway and is changed into heated air, and then, is discharged to the interior of the vehicle through the vents 11, 12 and 13 so as to warm the interior of the vehicle.
In this instance, in order to supply cold refrigerant to the first evaporator, as shown in FIG. 2, a compressor 1 which compresses and sends refrigerant, a condenser 2 which condenses the refrigerant of high pressure sent from the compressor 1, an expansion valve 3 for throttling the refrigerant condensed and liquefied in the condenser 2; an evaporator E for exchanging heat between the liquefied refrigerant of low pressure throttled by the expansion valve 3 and evaporating the refrigerant to cool the air discharged to the interior of the vehicle due to heat absorption by evaporative latent heat; and refrigerant pipes 5 through which the compressor 1, the condenser 2, the expansion valve 3 and the evaporator E are connected with one another. In the meantime, as described above, the evaporator E is disposed inside the air-conditioning case 10, the condenser 2 is located at the front of the vehicle in order to cool the refrigerant using traveling wind, and the compressor 1 is located inside an engine room because it is operated by an engine actuating belt. Therefore, the conventional air-conditioning system has a disadvantage in that connection of the pipes 5 becomes complicated.
In the meantime, in order to cool the interior of a vehicle, such as a truck, even in a state where the engine is not operated, an anti-start air-conditioner for a vehicle operated by a battery as a power source has been proposed. Such an anti-start air-conditioner for a vehicle is illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the anti-start air-conditioner for the vehicle, and FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the anti-start air-conditioner for the vehicle. The anti-start air-conditioner for the vehicle includes: first and second compressors 10a and 10b operated by the battery for the vehicle as a power source; a lying-type condenser 20 including first and second condensing parts 20a and 20b, which are respectively communicated with the first and second compressors 10a and 10b and have condenser inlets 21 to which refrigerant is induced and condenser outlets 22 through which the induced refrigerant is discharged after exchanging heat with outside air; first and second capillary tubes 30a and 30b which are respectively communicated with the condenser outlets 22 formed in the first and second condensing parts 20a and 20b; and first and second evaporators 40a and 40b which are respectively communicated with the first and second capillary tubes 30a and 30b and have first evaporator inlets 41 to which refrigerant is induced and first evaporator outlets 42 through which the induced refrigerant is discharged to the first and second compressors 10a and 10b after exchanging heat with the inside air.
However, the conventional air-conditioning system for the vehicle uses engine cooling water in order to perform heating, and the anti-start air-conditioner for the vehicle must have a heater mounted to heat the interior of the vehicle even in the state where the engine is not operated.
Therefore, an apparatus, which can perform heating and cooling at the same time, has a compact size and is easily installed in a vehicle is demanded, and especially, an apparatus which can properly perform heating and cooling even in the state where the engine is stopped or is not in use is demanded.